Wild Reason Student Reschedules Meeting Gets '10/10' From Professor

A student on her way to meet a professor on campus suddenly stopped when a baby duck caught her attention, forcing her to change plans.

Annie Rogovin, of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, told Newsweek via email that she found a duck waddling on a hill near the sidewalk. Noting it was strange to see a duckling there, she stayed around to see if anything was wrong. Another person who noticed the duckling called her over, stating they believed the duck looked injured.

"I started looking up animal hospitals and while I was doing that, we were trying to guide the duck back to the tree," Rogovin said. "There were other ducklings at the [tree base] that was hollowed out."

Rogovin sent her professor, Dr. Victoria Austen, an email explaining the situation and that she would not be attending her office hours. Amazed by her student's selflessness, Austen shared the story on X, formerly Twitter, giving Rogovin a "10/10" for the email. The May 9 post reached over 2.1 million views and 137,000 likes.

The entire email brightened Austen's day. She didn't mind that the meeting needed to be rescheduled, especially since it was never formally planned. Austen said her student had only thought about dropping by during office hours.

"...Having taught Annie in two classes now and knowing her personality, I would have known the whole story to be true even if she hadn't included the photo," Austen told Newsweek. "I just thought the entire story was extremely wholesome and fun, especially as she really had no reason to share it with me."

Rogovin said after being around the duck, she realized the duck was not injured. Instead, the duck was extremely young and struggling to walk. She used her sweatshirt to carry the duck and placed it back in the tree.

"Unfortunately, I have no updates on the duck," she said." I assume it is somewhere near Lyman Lakes, the lakes on campus where all the ducks hang out, waddling around! But I will still keep my eye out for the ducklings!"

How Did Users React?

People were curious to see the photo of the duck, as Austen didn't originally include it in her post. One person even asked: "They ducked out of the meeting?" But the proof was right there in the photo.

"That email is everything! ... It's adorable and perfectly excusable," one user wrote.

Another said: "I'd give them extra credit tbh."

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